A frequent and favorite guest artist in Chicago, Perlman has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both violin soloist and conductor on numerous occasions. He first appeared with the Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival on August 4, 1966 (a few weeks shy of his twenty-first birthday), in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Thomas Schippers conducting, and he first appeared at Orchestra Hall on May 11 and 12, 1967, in Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with Jean Martinon conducting.

Most recently, Perlman was soloist with the Orchestra downtown on March 7, 2011, in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Clark McAlister’s arrangement of Kreisler‘s Liebesfreud with James DePreist conducting, and at Ravinia on August 7, 2013, in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting.

Itzhak Perlman (Lisa Marie Mazzucco photo)

As a conductor, Perlman first led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival on July 25, 1999, in Bach’s Second Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s First Romance for Violin (also performing as soloist), along with Schubert’s Overture to Rosamunde and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. He has led the Orchestra at Orchestra Hall on one occasion, on November 17, 2008, in Bach’s First Violin Concerto (also performing as soloist), Mozart’s Symphony no. 35, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Most recently, he conducted the Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival on August 8, 2013, leading Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Haydn’s Second Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

Perlman also has recorded several times with the Orchestra, as follows: